(Entered as second-class mail-matter at the Chicago, 111., Post-Otflce.) 

 Published Monthly at 50 ots. a Year, by George W. York & Co., 118 W. Jackson Blvd. 



GEORGE W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL,, JANUARY, 1908 



Vol. XLVIII— No, 1 



itoHal ^ofes 

 and Commeiifs 



Pure Air in the Bee-Cellar 



Whatever the pains taken to ventilate 

 a hive in the cellar, what can it amount 

 to if the cellar itself be not well venti- 

 lated? If the air in the cellar be foul, 

 how can anything but foul air get into 

 the hive? Where a very few colonies 

 are kept in a cellar, the problem of 

 pure air would not be a difficult one if 

 it were not that the bees are put in the 

 same cellar in which are also placed 

 the family supply of vegetables. Ne-ther 

 would the presence of vegetables be a 

 serious matter if those vegetables were 

 always in such nice and fresh condition 

 as to be approved by the health officer. 

 Unfortunately this is not always the 

 case, especially where there is no health 

 officer to interfere. The important thing 

 is to keep a close supervision over the 

 vegetables, frequently sorting them over 

 and removing any and all that are no 

 longer good. Instead of that, it is too 

 often the case that everything is left till 

 the spring cleaning, when bushels of rot- 

 ten, stinking stuff are thrown out that 

 ought never to have been allowed to re- 

 main. A single rotten head of cabbage 

 will foul the air in the cellar more 

 than the bees. For their sake, even if 

 you care nothing for the health and 

 lives of the people that live over it, 

 use your eyes and your nose, and see 

 that the air in the cellar has a fighting 

 chance to be pure and sweet. 



Loss in Feeding Bees 



O. S. Rexford says this in Gleanings 

 in Bee Culture : 



"Friday evening, Oct. 4, I set a colony 

 of bees on scales, weighed them care- 

 fully, and then fed them 8 pounds of 

 granulated sugar dissolved in 7 pounds 

 of water. I fed in a Miller feeder. The 

 feed was all taken in 24 hours. The 



shrmkage in weight went on rapidly for 

 about two days, and then slowly for 

 several days till finallj', Oct. 13, hive and 

 bees weighed only 4 pounds more than 

 before I fed. 



"There was a young queen in the 

 hive, but brood-rearing had stopped sev- 

 eral days before, and there was no 

 brood except what had advanced beyond 

 the feeding stage. I looked over the 

 frames yesterday, but saw no eggs or 

 young brood. 



"If this were the only experiment I 

 had ever made I should not consider 

 it important enough to publish ; but I 

 have made many in the last 15 or 18 

 years, and always with similar results, 

 all seeming to show that bees do con- 

 sume a large percent of sugar as honey 

 fed them for winter use, or to store 

 in sections — in this trial, 60 percent — 

 when I know that if not fed, one pound 

 would have been sufficient for the whole 

 month of October." 



Unless there be something exceptional 

 in the experience of Mr. Rexford, some 

 of our ideas with regard to feeding need 

 revising. In any case, is it advisable, 

 so late as Oct. 4, to feed syrup which 

 is seven-fifteenths water? 



Testing Honey as to Kipeness 



Much is said from time to time as to 

 the unwisdom of putting upon the mar- 

 ket honey not thoroughly ripened. But 

 how is the novice to tell whether his 

 honey is ripe or not? Upon this point 

 little or nothing has been said, and so 

 is it any wonder that many a beginner 

 does himself and other bee-keepers a 

 mischief by putting unfit stuff on the 

 market, only learning by painful experi- 

 ence to make some sort of a guess as to 

 ripeness? Mr. I. Hopkins, the efficient 

 government apiarist of New Zealand, in 



an address before a bee-convention re- 

 ported in the New Zealand Farmer, 

 Stock and Station Journal, gave some- 

 thing very specific upon the subject, and 

 it would be a good thing if every pro- 

 ducer of extracted honey on this side 

 the globe would follow the advice of 

 Mr. Hopkins, get a hydrometer, and 

 never put upon the market a pound of 

 honey testing below 1.400. 



Mr. Hopkins made a great many tests, 

 finding that below a certain density 

 honey would take on fermentation, and 

 above that it would keep all right. He 

 said : 



"The conclusions I have arrived at 

 over the tests are, that all those regis- 

 tering 1. 410 and upwards were thorough- 

 ly ripe, and would keep, for any length 

 of time under ordinary conditions. 

 Those between 1.400 and 1.410, if not so 

 ripe, would keep for a long time ; but 

 all those registering below 1.400 seemed 

 to me to be doubtful in this respect. 

 I shall keep specimens of each as you 

 see them for testing by time. Now, 

 what I wish you all to do is to obtain 

 the apparatus yourselves, that is, each 

 individual, and try for yourselves, so 

 that you may learn to know for a cer- 

 tainty when your honey is ripe, and not 

 depend upon guesswork. The appliances, 

 hydrometer, glass, and thermometer 

 cost only about $1.87 in all, so that 

 they are within the reach of all of you ; 

 at all events the matter is one of so 

 much importance that if they cost six 

 times as much you ought to have them. 

 Be sure, also, when making tests, to re- 

 cord them all for future reference, or 

 they will be of very little use to you. 

 Make tests of the honey directly it is 

 extracted, and on each day afterward." 



Light in the Bee Cellar. 



A bee-ccUar must be kept dark; that's 

 the rule. It may be a question whether 

 there should not be more exceptions 

 to the rule than are generally allowed. 

 Other things, being equal, would bees 

 not do better in a light than in a dark 

 cellar? A man kept in the dark can 

 not have the same vigor as one daily 

 exposed to the full light of the sun. 

 If the light is so good for a man, why 

 not for a bee? 



Why should a cellar be kept dark? 

 The answer, no doubt, will be that if the 



